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Topic: Amazing! (Read 995 times)

As we approach the three year anniversary of my adding this forum my website, it's astounding that not a day has gone by following the first month, that spammers have not attempted to add their garbage to this board. Most attempts come from the former soviet block, China, or southern Asia. I assume that ISPs outside those areas are more intolerant of the people who want to pollute the internet with their unwelcome spam. I will continue to monitor this forum daily to ensure that spam doesn't remain up for very long when the spammers actually do manage to find an ISP whose internet addresses have not already been blocked by me. I apologize to proxy users who attempt to use the same ISP as the spammers when they find access blocked because the spammers have been there before them.

I've reached the limit of my patience with Spammers from the Ukraine. The spammers themselves are probably not even in the Ukraine, but are merely hacking into internet servers that are located there to cover their tracks because safeguards to prevent such abuse are limited or completely absent, or because the servers have intentionally been established to act as proxy servers in an unregulated environment.

So from this point forward I will work to block any and all internet traffic to my forum that uses server addresses assigned to any UA address. Forum members using UA addresses will see their membership privileges removed. This will also block proxy users who are trying to conceal their internet activity by using servers located in the Ukraine, and I apologize for this. Proxy users can thank the Spammers and SEO idiots for their non-stop, unwanted activity.

Unfortunately the entire internet is becoming polluted with spam and scams that flood email box's everyday. The billions worldwide that is being stolen by these criminals is creating an environment where it is difficult to trust anything that is received, with genuine retailers having their company used in fake emails to gather personnel details.

The same effort that is made to find and apprehend criminals using a gun to rob a bank or business does not seem to be used to find these people. Governments are quick to stop anything that affects them financially but the scams don't effect them and any effort to stop them does not have a financial reward for the government hence nothing much is done.

I live in Australia and a few weeks ago my credit card details were used at an automotive business in Las Vegas to the tune of $1,842. The bank accepted it was fraud and after a few weeks I got the money back. In reality we are paying for it with higher card fees

I think that some credit card companies are trying to stay on top of it. A few years ago I received a call from Visa Card Services to enquire if I was in Las Vegas because my card had just been used to pay for a room there. I told them that I most certainly was not in Las Vegas and never authorize anyone to use my card. The charge never appeared on my account. I think it might be getting a little more difficult for crooks these days because so many people have smart phones in their pocket and the credit card companies can verify suspicious activity within seconds. I get verification calls about four times a year. But the crooks keep coming up with new ways to steal.

I shall continue to delete spam messages almost as quickly as they appear. And I've blocked so many internet addresses that it's becoming impossible for anyone in Russia, the Ukraine, China, and India (or proxy users operating through internet proxy nodes in those countries) to post anything at all on this site. I know that some potential posters may be upset when being blocked from making genuine posts, but that's the price we pay to combat fraud.

There is another forum i am a part of where registered users are first given the visitors rank where they dont have full posting rights, but when they make their first post and submit it, it is first viewed by an administrator and then once approved, they are promoted and have full posting rights. Sounds like this is what this forum needs.

Anyway I think you are doing a good job in deleting spam messages. I only see one rarely and they are always deleted by my next visit.

There is another forum i am a part of where registered users are first given the visitors rank where they dont have full posting rights, but when they make their first post and submit it, it is first viewed by an administrator and then once approved, they are promoted and have full posting rights. Sounds like this is what this forum needs.

Anyway I think you are doing a good job in deleting spam messages. I only see one rarely and they are always deleted by my next visit.

That's a good idea. The software I'm using for this forum is freeware and I don't know if it has such an option, and right now I'm much too busy with AGU:11 to spend time digging through the instructions. Perhaps next year I'll be able to get to it.

It's been said that doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results is a sure sign of insanity. If that's true then I can state unequivocally that spammers are insane. Almost every day I either delete their attempts to fill this forum with their unwanted garbage or they run into a wall when trying to post. ANYONE who tries to post their sales messages on this board will have their messages removed within hours or even minutes. But what makes it even more difficult for them to continue is that I ban them for life PLUS I ban the FULL RANGE of internet addresses of the provider they used to post their garbage. So just changing their sign-on ID doesn't get them back in. And closing their connection in the hope that their ISP will assign them a different IP address won't work either. They have to route their SPAM through a different server, perhaps one that is located in a different country. And when they use that new one, I learn what it is and that one is then banned for life within hours or minutes. I take no prisoners. Once you're out, you're out for good. I've spent much of my life working in IT. I've done it all. I even spent a year studying internet networking in courses offered by the Cisco Academy to earn a CCNA. So stop wasting my time. But even more important to you, stop wasting your own time.

At one time I thought it was all a game to see who could get a SPAM post to remain up the longest, but now I know these people are just plan stupid. Or perhaps insane.

I think you blocked my tablet sometime last week or something. I just used it to check forum and it said i've been blocked from the forum. The only thing i can come up with is that i use a vpn app on my tablet sometimes. But it doesn't really matter too me since i use my phone 90% of the time. I'll just have to make sure not to install that vpn on my phone.

It's impossible to NOT block legitimate users at times. That's what the SPAM scum depends on. They want to make it impossible for a webmaster to block the scum without blocking the legitimate users. I often have to make choices with the IP4 address ranges I block. Presently, I think that I have blocked virtually all of the Ukraine (at least the address ranges available to spammers). I've also blocked a good portion of Russia and a couple of years ago I got so fed up with spammers using Chinese addresses that I blocked about a third of China. It usually depends on how I'm feeling when I block the IP4 ranges. Lately, I started doing something I had avoided. I've begun blocking email groups. I will continue to block all spam from this board. Another possibility might be to require that I view all attempted posts before releasing them to the board. That would definitely stop all spam, but reduces the function of the board. And I don't know if it's even possible with this freeware system. The last resort would be to require users to register and receive an assigned password, however I might simply decide to drop the forum altogether before I reach that point because I see a hundred posts from spammers for every legit post. I often wonder if it's worth the trouble.

I believe I mentioned in one of my posts that legit users may be blocked because they use the same proxy servers as some spammers use to spread their garbage. VPNs are just another form of proxy server.

For anyone out there who uses the services of an SEO company, this is how they get you to the top of search lists. They use SPAMMERS to put your name and web address onto forums and the like so that that big companies like Google see your name and assume that if people are talking about you on forums that you must be popular. What the SEO fools don't tell you is that as soon as you stop paying them, your listing drops faster than a rock in a paper bag because webmasters are constantly clearing their garbage out of their listings. Want a better system? Visit websites where users of your products gather and join the conversations. DON'T perform a data dump of your work or advertisements because the webmaster will block you from further access. Simply talk with people and every once in a while subtly mention that you're an author. If some one asks, and ONLY if someone asks, tell them your author name and your website address. That's all. Get carried away and you will be blocked by the webmaster. Believe me, I've seen it and I've DONE it.

Well its not much of an inconvenience since for me since i anyway check forum on my phone. I wasnt asking to be unblocked or anything. I hate spam messages too. But i would hate too see this forum go, even though its usually so quite. Its nice to be able to get updates on here and have questions answered.